\u00a0 \u00a0“If you can work successfully here, in this country, it will be no difficulty at all to kill the assorted sons of bitches you meet in any other country.”<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Back in the day, the Desert Training Center was 18,000 square miles, making it the largest military installation in the world; it opened in 1942 and at any one time there were upwards of\u00a0190 thousand men and 27,000 tanks\/halftracks\u00a0training at this facility, which was\u00a0lovingly referred to as, \u2018the place God forgot\u2019.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The website says that there is a\u00a0\u2018suggested donation\u2019 of $5.00, but the lady\u00a0at the door requires that you ‘ pay your donation’ or you ain’t gettin’ in.\u00a0\u00a0To me, the museum was singularly unspectacular.\u00a0\u00a0It’s got\u00a0Patton\u00a0t-shirts,\u00a0miniature\u00a0plastic\u00a0tanks and ball caps with Army stuff on them all for sale;\u00a0you can see\u00a0some old uniforms, shell casings, pictures and stories about Patton\u2019s war heroics, as well as the story of the infamous \u2018slapping incident\u2019 and the details of his freakish accidental death as a result of a car accident.\u00a0 But some of the items, like a room with Holocaust\u00a0photos and the story of Desert Storm and other artifacts, seem unrelated and\u00a0appear\u00a0to be\u00a0just filler.\u00a0 Even the pictures of Patton were disappointing.\u00a0 Of course my image of Patton is really\u00a0the image of\u00a0George C. Scott – well, check out the pictures of each, who would you more likely follow into battle?<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So the real draw to the museum, I thought, must be\u00a0the tanks.\u00a0 I went outside into the oppressive heat and was first greeted\u00a0by a friendly sign warning me of other ‘visitors’ who may be\u00a0in the area – hope they paid their donation. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are 15 or so assorted tanks and halftracks sitting in the sand,\u00a0mostly\u00a0in disrepair, and looking\u00a0like petrified dinosaurs stuck in the desert.\u00a0 I thought it might be interesting to see the insides of a tank and perhaps sit in the driver\u2019s seat \u2013 but the sign said \u2018Do Not Climb On The Tanks!\u2019\u00a0 They were hot to the touch anyway and if it was 108 degrees in the shade, you could probably bake a turkey on the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There were also several ‘frames’ of tanks (see above right) which at first I thought were sort of like\u00a0Jungle\u00a0Jims\u00a0that\u00a0kids could play on, but there was a sign on them that said ‘Keep Off’ – so I guess they were\u00a0just there to\u00a0reserve a place for future tanks, not sure.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So those of you who have seen the signs, wanted to turn off, but just kept driving, you and God were right, it is place\u00a0that should be forgotten. Rent the Patton <\/em>DVD and sit in your nice air-conditioned home and watch it. Great general, great movie,\u00a0not-so-great museum.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow The Museum \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I turned off the freeway and headed for the museum and see a statue of General Patton and his trusty dog, William the Conqueror, atop the museum as well as an assortment of\u00a0tanks off … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/photo-531.jpg\" "\\"photo")
<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I turned off the freeway and headed for the museum and see a statue of General Patton and his trusty dog, William the Conqueror, atop the museum as well as an assortment of\u00a0tanks off to the left side of the single story building. I learned that this is not the \u2018official\u2019 Patton Museum; that is in Fort Knox, Kentucky, but since I wasn\u2019t headed in that direction anytime soon, I figured I\u2019d check out this \u2018memorial\u2019 museum, which is built\u00a0on the site of the former Desert Training Center, in beautiful Chirico Summit, CA.\u00a0\u00a0The surrounding environment is very\u00a0hostile,\u00a0which is why this area was selected as a place to train our armored division for battles in Northern Africa during WWII.\u00a0 At the time Patton said,<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Off in a fenced-in area\u00a0there were more relics\u00a0in\u00a0severe disrepair, and I wasn’t\u00a0sure if it was fenced\u00a0off so they could charge extra to see these beauties or whether these would be on display\u00a0at a later time, but as you can tell by the picture (right) it may not be worth another $5 to\u00a0see them.<\/p>\n